Improvement in stop-watches



G. P. REED.

Watch Stop.

N0.- 38,502. Patented May 12, 1863 Witnesses: I Inv'entar:

UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE.

GEORGE P. REED, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEM ENT IN STOP-WATCH ES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,502, dated May 12, 1863.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE I. REED, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Roxbury, in the county of N orfolk and State of Massachusetts, have made a new and useful Imprevoment in Watches; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawing, which denotes aside view of a watch-dial, train, and second-hand having my invention applied to the train.

In carrying out my invention I arrange in t'ie main train of a watch or on the arbor of the second-hand or the pinion thereof a mechanism by which the stoppage of the secondhand may be effected at any part of its circle of revolution Without at the same producing a stoppage of the train or the hour and minute hands thereof. The second-hand thus has applied to it and the train what may be termed an independent second mechanism, peculiarly simple in its construction and very advantageous in its operation.

In carrying out my invention I do not require any wheel work or gearing additional to the regular hour and minute train.

My invention differs from those in which the second hand is carried or operated by a spring and train separate from and independent of the mainspring and its train by which the hour and minute hands are revolved. It also differs from those independent second mechanisms which consist of additional gears and other devices applied to the regular hour and minute hand train, and which not only impose a heavy burden on the regular wheelwork and its mainspring, but are liable to injure or impair the watch as a time-keeper.

My stoppage mechanism is applied directly to the arbor of the seconds pinion of the regular train of a watch, and thereby may be said to be arranged in the train by which the hour, minute, and second hands are operated. Such stoppage mechanism, as well as its arrangement or combination, in the manner substantially as described, with the main train, constitutes the nature of my invention or improvement with reference to most if not all other independent second motions or mechanisms.

In the drawings, A denotes the dial-plate and B the frame-work, of a watch. 0 is the second-hand, and D the second-hand gearwheel of a regular train, of which E denotes the barrel for containing the mainspring. The train between the barrel and the secondhand wheel D consists of the gears a b c and pinions d e. The last pinion, e, is usually attached to the gear-wheel D and with it freely revolves with the arbor g, which carries the second-hand G. W'ith my invention the said arbor g is provided with a shoulder or seat, h, for supporting the pinion e, and, furthermore, it has a separate cylindrical brake wheel or collar '5, or its equivalent, which is fitted on it above the wheel. A helical frictionspring, 7., encompasses that part of the arbor which is between the said collar and the wheel D and at its opposite extremities. The said spring should bear or be caused to act against the collar 2' and the pinion 6 with a pressure or friction which shall suffice to cause the arbor to be revolved by the pinion whenever a stopper or brake, l, is off or not borne against the periphery of the collar 2'. The said stopper or brake consists of a slider, m, provided with a retracting-spring, n, and arranged so as to be capable of being pressed endwise against the periphery of the collar or brake wheel 1'. By being so pressed against the said collar the stopper will arrest the rotary motion of the arbor that otherwise would be produced by the seconds pinion while in revolution.

From the above it will be seen that the stoppage of the second-hand may be effected at any instant without at the same time producing a stoppage of the train also,that the moment the collar may be relieved from the pressure of the stopper the second-hand will again commence to revolve. Thus, as with other independent second mechanisms, we can stop the second-hand on any part of the dialscale, and in an instant set such hand free.

I do not claim, in combination with the regular train of a watch, an independent second train arranged outside of the regular train and so as to be operated by its spring.

I clai1n- 1. The combination of the friction-spring k, the brake collar or wheel 2', and the brake or stopper 1, or their mechanical equivalent or with respect to each other and in or relatively equivalents, with the seeonds pinion e and to the main or regular train of a watch, as deits arbor g, so applied that the pinion may roscribed.

tate on the arbor and relatively thereto, as de- GEO. P. REED. scribed. Witnesses 2. The arrangement of the friction-spring R. H. EDDY, 1 k, the brake-stopper l, and collar or wheel 2' F. P. HALE, Jr. 

